Harry Potter and the People Who Help
by Princess Scherbatskaya
Summary: Harry's childhood started out pretty badly, but Harry finds that there are people in the world who will do everything to protect what is right. He wants to be like them. The story will include characters from Doctor Who, Marvel, Elementary and other fandoms. I've chosen not to list it as a crossover because the universe is still Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1

In the house belonging to Vernon and Petunia Dursley, a child woke up at six o'clock in the morning to a shrill voice outside his cupboard. "Freak, it's time you learned to cook. We shan't be slaving about while you enjoy life with no responsibilities." The child was just short of 90 centimetres tall. Harry should have been taller, around 101 centimetres to be precise, but it wasn't as though the Dursleys believed in feeding Harry, did they?

The child climbed out of the cupboard, taking care not to hit the roof on the way out, a skill learned the hard way. "Yes, Aunt Tunia, I'll cook." The child smiled, hoping to be a good boy, like his cousin Dudley.

Petunia eyed Harry with a nasty glare. "Well, don't dawdle," she barked, and Harry hurried, mumbling apologies into the kitchen. She shoved Harry in front of the stove, handed him some eggs, and demanded that he make breakfast.

Harry, of course didn't know how, but before he could ask how, his aunt had left the room. Harry winced, knowing that if he got this wrong, as with anything else, he would get a beating, that was what happened to bad freaks. He didn't like beatings, so he reached up to the counter, standing on a chair for support, and found a cookbook. Harry sounded out the words of each dish until he found a recipe for eggs, and proceeded to begin to put together a meal. It took two tries and standing on a chair for Harry to light the stove, but eventually he could see flames rising from the surface. Harry found that he actually enjoyed beating the eggs, and checking on them, stirring them around the pan, although he didn't like it so hot. It could be worse, it was better than being hit. Taking the heavy pan off the stove wasn't easy, but Harry managed. Thankfully, Uncle Vernon didn't walk in until Harry had just finished setting the table. He threw a feeble insult at Harry, who had managed to sneak a taste between the stove and the table, as Petunia and Dudley, who was throwing a tantrum and demanding to be fed, walked in.

Harry managed to escape the kitchen, and returned to his cupboard, hoping things wouldn't get worse. Of course, when his aunt and uncle were involved, when didn't they? Some time later, Harry thought it might have been a while because he was hungry, his aunt wrenched open his cupboard door, and announced that it was high time the freak gave them some peace in the house.

"But where am I supposed to go?" Harry timidly asked.

"I don't care," she snapped. "Just be home in time to cook supper for my Dudders, a growing boy needs food."

And so Harry brushed off his clothes as best he could, and went outside, hoping to find somewhere that didn't feel quite so hot and sunny.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry wandered around for a while. He wasn't sure what to do, but he tried to be as invisible as possible, a feat that wasn't terribly difficult to accomplish given his small stature. Harry ended up in front of a wooden building with an oddly shaped roof. He was at the library now. Harry supposed he ought to head inside, but the door was a little high for him. He waited for someone to come along and open the door, and sneaked past them.

Harry pulled a book off a shelf and drifted to a corner with a helpfully placed clock on the wall, and began to read about French cooking. He didn't understand many of the words in the book, but Harry knew he had to learn. Harry found all sorts of interesting recipes, for duck a l'orange, and escargot, which sounded fancy, but Harry was pretty sure he couldn't just go buy duck, and he didn't think Dudley would be particularly pleased to eat snails, although Harry wouldn't mind, food was food, after all.

Finally, Harry found some more reasonable recipes, for chicken dishes, but he decided that he'd better find a cookbook for English food. He skipped onto the next book, and saw recipes for more familiar foods, shepherd's pie, fish and chips, that was more like it. Reconsidering the idea of eating snails, Harry put aside the idea for himself, as he would need nutrition and during the summer months snails were widely available, and wouldn't cost Vernon or Petunia anything.

After reading a few recipes, Harry looked up to check the time and noticed that a pair of people who looked like they were dressed for one of Aunt Petunia's afternoon teas sat down at a table near his spot. They seemed uneasy, though. Harry could hear them talking about it being the wrong time for them to come here. Harry couldn't really see a problem with being at the library anytime, but maybe someone here didn't like them. It wasn't really Harry's problem, but Harry knew it was safest to know who liked and disliked the people around you. They also kept mentioning a doctor. Harry wondered if one of them was ill.

Of course, Harry had never seen a doctor, no matter how ill he'd been, but he knew that when normal people got sick, they saw a doctor. That would certainly explain their discomfort, he noted. Harry tucked away all of this information, and kept reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry memorized a few simple recipes, with ingredients that should be easy to find. The man at the woman at the table seemed to not notice him still, which was fine by Harry, since when people noticed him things usually didn't end very well. With a glance at the clock, Harry figured it was time he headed back to Privet Drive, and so he gathered his pile of books to return them to the shelves. What he hadn't counted on was that a child of his stature carrying a stack of books would attract attention from those nearby, namely the sick pair at the table in the corner.

The woman came over, knelt down so he was at eye level, and introduced herself. "Do you need any help with those books?"

"No, ma'am, I'm just putting them back on the shelves and then I'm going home."

"I could help with that," she offered. "You shouldn't be out all alone, especially not this close to dark?"

Living in a cupboard, Harry was quite used to the dark. He didn't say this, though, he was quite sure that if he did something very bad would happen if he said anything like that. Instead, he said: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not supposed to go around with strangers."

And, despite that Harry was quite good at controlling his words for his age, he couldn't help but blurt out the question that he'd been holding in his mind. "Ma'am, are you or your friend ill?"

She looked surprised for a moment. "No, why do you ask."

"Well, it's just, I heard something about a doctor while I was reading."

She suspected that the child had probably heard more than a bit of what they were talking about, and considered herself lucky that it was a child who'd overheard and that he seemed not to entirely understand her conversation.

She recovered enough to respond. "Oh, that was just a bit of gossip, nothing to worry about."

Harry suspected that she hadn't told him the entire truth, but why should she tell a complete stranger. "I've got to be heading home, ma'am, my aunt will worry." He hoped the lie would convince her.

As the child shelved the books, Barbara turned to her friend. "Something's not right with that child. He's been reading cookbooks and he's walking all alone in the dark. Isn't there something we can do?"


	4. Chapter 4

Ian, looking wholly disturbed, stared at Barbara. "You know we can't doing anything without scaring the lights out of the child. If we follow him and he sees, the child will be frightened, and rightly so, we're adults and he's a child. We can't do anything."

Barbara glared at him. "We're teachers, and we can't do anything for the child? Tell me you didn't see the signs. You can practically see the child's ribs, and I heard him muttering something about his uncle."

Ian sighed, and glanced over at the child. He did indeed look scrawny, and it wasn't exactly normal for a boy that age to read cookbooks. Perhaps times had changed, but Ian backed Barbara's intuition. Of course, the trouble was that strange couples weren't allowed to whisk children away.

"About his uncle what?" Ian retorted. "Plenty of children have got uncles, haven't they? This isn't our business. It's not like we can just march into the Headmaster's office, not these days."

"We may not be able to march into the Headmaster's office, but – oh, come on, we haven't got time to lose. Ian Chesterton, you had better not let me down."

Ian, looking irritated at the lack of a plan, followed her to the front of the library, which the child hadn't yet left.

"Hello. I'm Ms. Wright, the one who offered to help you with the books, and this is Mr. Chesterton. Are you quite sure things are alright at home?"

The kid looked distrustfully at them. "I'd better get home, my Aunt and Uncle will worry."

"We're both teachers, but we're not exactly from around here. We only want to help."

Luckily, Barbara did actually have a real piece of identification that proved her to be a teacher, and showed it to the child.  
>"We only want to help. We're kind of stranded, but we might be able to improve things slightly for you."<p>

"And what are you going to do?" asked the kid. "Whenever someone tries to help out, they forget that they tried, like a mean joke."

"Are you suggesting that someone might threaten us if we try to help you? Because we aren't afraid. We may be teachers, but your aunt and uncle haven't got to know that we aren't with child services."

"Look, if you want to help, you'd best stay out of things."

"Well, then, we don't necessarily have to do anything now, but would you like to meet up with us tomorrow here at the library?"

"If I can get out of the house and do all my chores, sure. I'm Harry, by the way."

Barbara smiled brightly. "We'll see you tomorrow, Harry!"

At that exact moment, the Doctor and Susan appeared. Ian and Barbara weren't really cross with him for kidnapping them, not anymore. Despite the doctor's apparent knack for getting them into trouble, he also seemed to have a wisdom about them, and wisdom, they hoped, would help them solve this problem with them.


End file.
